Ash-retaining cigarette holder



March 23, 1943. w. LEMLE 2,314,585v

ASH-RETAINING CIGARETTE HOLDER Filed Dec. '28,- 1940 Patented Mar. 23, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,314,585 ASH-RETAINING CIGARETTE HOLDER William Lemle, Chicago, Ill. Application December 28, 1940, Serial No. 372,069

Claims.

My invention relates to means for reducing the damages commonly caused by ashes dropped from a cigarette while the latter is being smoked or when it is laid down, and for improving the satisfaction of smoking a given cigarette.

Primarily, the objects of my invention include the providing of a combined cigarette holder and ash collecting guard which will permit a convenient insertion of a cigarette as well as speedy ejection of the cigarette stub and the collected ash, and which will afford a cooler smoke and a more pleasing taste (during the smoking of a given cigarette) than that obtainable when the same cigarette was held either directly in the smokers mouth or in a conventional cigarette holder. Furthermore, my invention aims to provide a combined cigarette holder and ash guard in which this guard will securely collect the ash when the smoker is keeping the axis of the cigarette substantially horizontal and also when he leans somewhat forward, and one which will be light, compact, inexpensive and easily cleanable.

In view of the quite frequent damaging of clothes, table linen, chair seats and curtains, and also to prevent the often even more serious damage resulting from fires produced by the dropping of hot ashes, many different ash-retaining attachments for cigarette holders have heretofore been proposed. But, to the best of my knowledge, none prior to my own here disclosed type has ever become commercial or logically could be both safe and satisfactory, for the following reasons: To withstand the heat of the ash, such an ash retainer (or so-called ash guard) should be made of metal and constructed so as to present guard parts at many points circumferentially of the cigarette, as also to prevent accumulated ash from sliding forwardly out of the cigarette. It also should be both light, durable, and easy to clean; and its use should not mar the taste and enjoyment of the smoke.

In many heretofore proposed ash guards, the guard elements frequently have been so widely spaced that portions of the glowing ash would still drop out between them. On the other hand, with more closely spaced guard elements, such as parallel wires or strips extending longitudinally of and spaced around the periphery of the cigarette, this close spacing has not permitted an adequate cooling of the ash by the surrounding air; and when the guard consisted of wires which had to be slid into the tobacco of the cigarette, these wires would not be cooled at all by the outer air. Moreover, metal guard parts contacting with glowing ash will readily conduct heat to other parts of the ash, thereby softening and collecting adhesive constituents of the tobacco which later on harden on the wires or strips and are difficult to remove. So, also, when such wires are disposed around a' cigarette and clamped against a cigarette by a sliding ring, the collected and hardened adhesive soon cements the ring immovably to these wires.

The use of a wire spiraling around the cigarette also has been unsatisfactory, both because portions of the ash would drop out between consecutive turns of the spiral unless the latter was so closely coiled as to add undue weight to the guard, because the length of the wire made this slow to clean, and because the taste of the next cigarette would be spoiled if the deposit had not been adequately scraped off.

My present invention aims to overcome all of the above listed objections to previously proposed ash-guarding attachments for cigarette holders, by introducing the following innovations:

(1) Instead of having a generally tubular cage or guard grip the periphery of the cigarette and house the entire length of the cigarette, I make my ash-retaining guard of a larger effective bore than the diameter of the cigarette, and mount this guard on a holder (or holder tip part) of smaller bore fitting the rear end of the cigarette. With the ash-retaining parts of the guard thus spaced radially from the periphery of the cigarette, these metal parts need not contact with the glowing end of the cigarette except for a few moments after the cigarette is lit, and thereafter receive heat only by rather poor conduction through the gradually collected ash in front of the cigarette. Consequently, these ash guard parts are not sufliciently warmed (during the smoking of the cigarette) for causing much of the adhesive in the cigarette to be drawn out and deposited on the said guard parts.

(2) Instead of constructing my ash guard for attachment to the cigarette, I mount the guard parts upon the holder into which the cigarette is inserted, and make this holder of metal so that it will also radiate heat received through the ash by the metal guard parts. By doing this I cool the smoke to such a degree as to improve both the taste and the satisfaction of the smoker.

(3) Instead of constructing my guard so that the inserted cigarette will project forwardly beyond the guard to permit ash from the tip of that cigarette to drop freely, I make the upper portions of my guard or Wire cage of such a length as to project slightly beyond the forward end of the cigarette, and make the lower guard portions still longer so as to catch and hold the ash when the user leans somewhat forwardly,

(4) To facilitate the insertion of a cigarette into the guarded holder, and also to prevent accumulated ash from sliding out of the ash guard when the smoker leans forwardly, I use slender hairpin-like loops of thin resilient wire as the guard elements, support these with shanks of each loop extending longitudinally of the cigarette and the bights of the loops at their forward ends. Moreover, I form each such wire loop so that the major portion of the length of each shank thereof is straight and parallel to the axis of the guard, so that the relatively shorter forward portion of each hairpin-like loop will present the bight of the loop forwardly of a cigarette inserted in the holder, and tilt these forward portions only part way toward the axis of the holder.

To facilitate the ejection of the cigarette stub and the ash from the holder, I also provide an ash elector slldably guided by at least one shank of .one of the said loops and having a con,- veniently accessible fingerpiece.

(6) To make my guarded cigarette holder equally suitable for those unaccustomed to the use of cigarette holders and to others who habitually prefer cigarette holders having flattened mouth ends, I also form the rear end of the tubular metal part of my holder so as to fit into the mouth end of a conventional cigarette holder,

Illustrative of my invention:

Figure l is a side elevation of a combined cigarette holder, ash collecting guard and ejector;

Figure 2 is an enlarged transverse section taken through Figure 1 along the line 2-2;

Figure 3 is a section taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, but drawn on a smaller scale than the latter figure;

Figure 4 is a section allied to Figure 3, but taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 2, showing the combination device of Figure 1 as mounted in the mouth of a conventional cigarette holder which has a horizontally flattened rear end;

Figure 5 is a rear elevation of the just mention d o ven ion are e h l er;

Figure 6 is a greatly enlarged perspective view of the cigarette stub ejector shown in side eleyation in Figure 4;, including portions of the two wires which li ably gui e the e ec r;

Figure '7 illustrates a modified form of guard; and Figure 8 is an enlargement of an outer portion of Figure .2, nc d n t a n of o de or the like which fastens the guard wires to the ho de In the drawing, the forward part F of the holder is exteriorly cylindrical and has its bore tapering rearwardly and of a size suitable for having one end of a standardsized cigarette socketed in it, which cigarette has its Wrapper designated by W and its filling by 'I, and this forward holder part has a peripheral flange P. The said tapering bore portion leads to the bore T of the rearward part B of the holder, and this rearward part has a rearwardly tapering exterior corresponding in diameter and shape to the forward bore part 1.

Disposed around the forward part of the holder and the cigarette socketed in the holder are a plurality of hairpin-like guard members formed of resilient wire, each of which guard members has the free ends of both of its shanks S bearing against the exteriorly cylindrical forward part F of the holder and abutting rearwardly against the said peripheral flange P. Each of these slender U-shaped guard members has all except forward portions of its shanks straight, and extending parallel to the axis A of the holder, so that the major portions of all of these guard shanks are all equally spaced radially outward from the cigarette as shown in Figures 3 and 4. Moreover, I preferably make the spread of each U-shaped guard member and the spacing between consecutive guard members such that every two consecutive guard shanks are equally spaced, as shown in Figure 2.

As a simple means for fastening the guard members to the metal holder, I merely dip the proposed assemblage into a bath of molten solder or the like while the rear ends of these guard members are held in suitably spaced relation to the holder, thereby metallically anchoring these members by the coating C (Figure 8) which then gives a rust-preventing finish to the entire assembly.

If each such g a d shank ere straight all t way forward up to the bend or bight of the corresponding guard member, the cigarette obviously could slide forward if not socketed adequately firmly, and ash collectedin front of the cigarette during its smoking would slide out when the smoker tilts his head forwardly. 'Io guard against this, I tilt the loop-end portions of all of the guard members toward the axis A of the holder, make all of these U-shaped guard members of such a length as to present the bights of their loops forwardly of the inserted cigarette, and dispose the tilt-effecting bends so that a part of each guard member will press the tip of the initially inserted cigarette toward the axis of the cigarette. Moreover, I preferably make at least two adjacent guard members considerably longer than the others, so that when these are at the bottom (as in Figures 1 and 2) they will additionally prevent ash from sliding out.

During the smoking of a thus guarded cigarette, the glowing cigarette tip only momentarily and immaterially warms some adjacent guard wires, but this glowing tip steadily recedes and thereafter is spaced even from the tilted parts of the guard wires by the ash collecting in front of the cigarette, which ash is cooled by the air which freely reaches it through the spaces between adjacent guard wires. Moreover, these metallic wires readily conduct heat throughout their entire length and also to the metal holder, so that this heat is radiated to the outer air. Consequently, the cigarette remains cooler than it would without my ash-guard provision, thereby also cooling the smoke to improve the satisfaction to the smoker of the cigarette.

For easily ejecting both the stub of the smoked cigarette and the collected ash, I provide an ejector comprising a head normally disposed in the tubular bore part of the holder behind the cigarette, a stem I extending forwardly out of the holder from this head and adapted to be pressed against that bore by the cigarette to clamp the ejector to the holder, a guide portion G slidably looped around two adjacent guard wires S, and a handle or fingerpiece projecting outwardly of the guard. Such an ejector can be cheaply made (as shown in Figure 6) by bending one end of a short length of wire into a ring E which is smaller than the end of a cigarette to form an ejector ring or may be filled with solder D to form a solid ejector head, and bending the other end of the wire to form both a handle H and an added guide loop G extending I around two guard wires which preferably are 7 part R to and from his mouth. Or, if previously accustomed to using a conventional cigarette holder 9 which has its rear end 9a, such as that shown in Figures 4 and 5, he can do the same after socketing that holder part in the forward end of a conventional cigarette holder 9 with the said handle H extending at right angles to the plane l along which the rear end of that holder is flattened.

Since the guard loops are resilient, the upper ones can readily be sprung digitally upward, as indicated in dotted lines S in Figure 4 for easily inserting a cigarette. Moreover, since the lower guard loops project beyond the others, a car driver using my guarded cigarette holder can digitally tell even in complete darkness how my device should be positioned, and then can readily insert and light a fresh cigarette with the use of only one hand, thus leaving his other hand free for steering the car.

Moreover, while I have heretofore described my invention as including many desirable details of construction and arrangement, many changes might obviously be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims. For example, instead of connecting the forward ends of each two adjacent guard shanks by a bight to simplify the manufacture and to reduce the likelihood of having these wire shanks accidentally bent out of their normal shape, separate and generally straight guard Wires may be used when each has its forward end bent into a slender loop II as in Figure 7. So, also, by suitably enlarging my previously described assemblage, this obviously also could be used advantageously in connection with cigars instead of cigarettes.

I claim as my invention:

1. An ash-retainingholder for a given size of cigarette, comprising: a tubular holder having the forward end of its bore formed for socketing an end of a cigarette; and a plurality of U-shaped and generally straight-shanked guard elements disposed in circular formation around the axis of the said holder to loosely receive a cigarette therein; each guard element being formed of resilient wire adapted to be sprung at its outer end to insert a cigarette and having its shanks generally parallel to the said axis out of contact with an inserted cigarette and the rearward parts of these shanks rigidly fastened to the said holder, and its shank-connecting bight bent inwardly toward the said axis sufliciently to engage the end of an inserted cigarette and its ash.

2. An ash-retaining cigarette holder as per claim 1, in which the straight parts of the shanks of the guard elements are spaced from the said axis by a distance greater than the radius of the cigarette and out of contact therewith, and the outer ends of some of the guards are inclined inwardly to engage the outer end only of an in-- serted cigarette and its ash.

3. An ash-retaining cigarette holder as per claim 1, in which the length of each guard element is such that each thereof presents at least a forward part of its inwardly bent bight forwardly of the forward end of a cigarette socketed in the said holder and certain of the bight portions extending inwardly to lightly engage the outer end of a cigarette.

4. An ash-retaining cigarette holder as per claim 1, in which the holder includes a peripheral flange against which the ends of the shanks of the resilient bendable guard elements abut, and means rigidly securing the said ends to the holder leaving the outer bight ends free for springing them apart to insert a cigarette in the holder.

5. An ash-retaining cigarette holder as per claim 1, in which the holder is metallic and includes a peripheral flange spaced rearwardly from its forward end, and in which ends of the shanks of the guard elements abut against and are soldered to that flange, the guard elements being of a length to extend beyond the end of an inserted cigarette when the ends abut the said flange.

6. An ash-retaining cigarette holder as per claim 1, in which the bights of a plurality of adjacent guard elements at one side of an imaginary plane extending along the axis of the holder extend farther forward than the bights of guard elements at the opposite sides of that plane.

7. A combined ash-retaining cigarette holder and ash ejector, comprising a tubular holder, elongated U-shaped resilient guard elements each having the major portions of its shanks extending parallel to the axis of the holder and the rearward portions of these shanks fastened to the holder, and a cigarette ejector slidably guided by a plurality of such shanks and normally presenting its rearward portion within the bore of the holder and behind the rear end of a cigarette socketed in the holder and movable on the shanks outwardly from the front of the holder.

8. The combination with a cigarette holder and an ash guard which includes wire elements extending forwardly from the holder and parallel to the axis of the holder, of a cigarette ejector including a rearward part normally disposed within the bore of the holder and rearwardly of the mouth of that bore, an intermediate part slidably guided by two adjacent wire elements and movably thereon outwardly from the front of the holder, and a fingerpiece projecting radially outward from the forward portion of the said intermediate part.

9. A cigarette holder and ash guard combination as per claim 8, in which the ash guard is composed of U-shaped members each of which has its shanks forming two of the said wire elements, in which the said intermediate part of the cigarette ejector is slidably guided by the adjacent shanks of two of these U-shaped members.

10. A cigarette holder and ash ejector combination as per claim 8, in which the said intermediate part of the ejector is formed for scraping deposit off the wire elements which guide it, when the ejector is slid forwardly from its said normal disposition and along said wire elements in front of the holder.

WILLIAM LEMLE. 

